


Shelter

by TheStrangeSeaWolf



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Banter, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Escape, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Sleep, Sleep Deprivation, Time - Freeform, naming monsters, whouffaldi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:08:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22633243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheStrangeSeaWolf/pseuds/TheStrangeSeaWolf
Summary: The Doctor and Clara have fled from some strange creatures and are now stuck in a cellar room for the night.Inspired by a beautiful artwork by Cornuts360.
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald
Comments: 4
Kudos: 40





	Shelter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cornuts360](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cornuts360/gifts).



> So, I woke up and had this picture before my eyes. And it told me I needed to write this story.

“We are safe here!”

“Do you know this, or do you just assume it?”

“I’m 79.65% sure.”

“Doctor…”

“What? So far, they haven’t come downstairs, so they are probably afraid of the cellar or something.”

The Doctor examined the gloomy room they had fled into with his sonic screwdriver and discovered an old storm lantern. He rummaged around in his pockets until he found a lighter and lit it.

The room was nearly empty safe for some rubbish and tools lying around. At least there was a machete and a large chopper, these could come in handy in case of an attack. He took up a spade and blocked the door with it. There was an empty hollow that once held a window, barred with blanks. They hid the view but did nothing against the biting cold that crept through the gaps. There was a map on the wall, but he couldn’t make sense of it.

“Speaking of that: What ARE they?” Clara asked.

“I don’t know… never seen them before.”

“Have you seen the people? And how that poor dog…”

“Yes, seems everything that inhales their green breath just withers!”

“They sure are scary! Wolves with batwings… I name them…”

“Oi, I am the Doctor, I name the monsters!”

“Gargolfs!”

“Clara!”

“What? Who made up the ‘The Doctor names the monsters’ rule anyway? Besides _I_ had the idea with the masks to avoid inhaling that deadly, smoke-like breath of the Gargolfs, so you owe me this, right?”

“Okay, _I_ name them… Gargolfs!” The Doctor blurted.

Clara snorted.

“You are a sore loser, Doctor. By the way, if you think we are safe here we can take down the masks, don’t you think?”

“You wear a mask?”

“Doctor! By the way, yours is an improvement of your face so you can keep it on if you feel like it!”

Clara took the gas mask off, the Doctor the plague mask, and they were grinning at each other like idiots, happy to be still alive.

Suddenly Clara’s face turned serious.

“Doctor, you are bleeding!”

He looked down. His right trouser leg was torn and drenched with blood.

“Don’t worry. They weren’t my best trousers anyway. Those Gargolfs sure have sharp claws. Look at my coat, too!”

“Doctor, I’m not talking about your clothes, let me take a look at your leg!”

“It’s nothing, Clara, just a minor scratch!”

“Uh-hu, Doctor, sure, now sit down and let me have a look!”

“It will heal by itself; I have a…”

“Superior Time Lord biology, I know. Now sit down and shut up and let sister Clara have a look at your leg, you stupid old alien!”

He grunted and sat on the floor. He would never tell her, but he just put on an act. He liked when she tended to him. She did have a sharp tongue, but she was careful and tender when she treated a wound. And the combination of both, banter and care, made her unique and created a feeling in his hearts he didn’t have a name for. It felt somehow warm, like a sheltered place where nothing bad could harm him.

She opened her backpack and pulled out the first aid bag.

“Now, aren’t you glad I insisted to take some necessary supplies with us?”

“Sure. Because you didn’t have to carry it while running around in the mountains and inside a castle designed by a mad architect with way too much appreciation for corridors and stairs,” he mumbled.

She grinned as she started to cut the trouser leg, creating a better access to examine the wound.

“It’s a deep cut, Doctor. It’s just a flesh wound, but it seems it already gets infected. Guess Gargolfs are not really keen on clean claws.”

She carefully cleaned the wound and applied some antiseptic. He tried hard not to flinch but failed.

“Look who’s a big sissy!” She teased, but immediately added “Sorry, should have warned you that it might hurt a bit,” she stroked his knee apologetically.

“It didn’t hurt, it just surprised me because it felt cold.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say, Doctor.”

They smiled at each other, knowing each other too well not to see past their facades. She bandaged him properly and sat back to eye the result.

“Not perfect, but good enough for the means we have.”

He smiled and looked at her. She looked tired.

“Why don’t you lie down for a bit and rest, Clara?”

“I’m not tired, Doctor!”

“Clara, we are on this planet for a good 50 hours and we are fleeing from the Gargolfs in the mountains for the most part of it. The usual waking period of a human is 16 hours interchanged with 8 hours of sleep. Given that I picked you up on an evening after school that means you already have missed at the very least 2 complete human sleep cycles…”

“Oh, just shut up, Doctor! Yes! I am tired! Dead tired to be exact. But, honestly, you don’t look any better! When did you sleep last?”

“That’s not comparable Clara, I’m a Time Lord and Time Lords have…”

“If you say: ‘superior Time Lord biology’ again I’m going to slap you!”

“Well, technically, last time _you_ said it…”

“Oh, just shut up!”

They stared at each other, both dead tired, both stubborn, both very much alike.

“We can just lay down for a bit together, can we? I mean, you said we are safe here. There are two blankets in the backpack,” Clara said.

He shook his head.

“See, there’s still a 20.35% likeliness it isn’t safe. So, you lie down and I keep the watch, Clara.”

“No way, Doctor!”

She was incredibly stubborn. But she really needed to sleep. Her eyes were glassy and there were dark rings forming around her beautiful eyes. He knew her long enough to know that the direct approach would just make her push back. So, maybe he had to use her own tactics against her. He couldn’t do that inflate thing with his eyes, but maybe something else would work…

“Look, we both need sleep. At the same time, those Gargolfs are out there and probably after us. So, only one of us can sleep while the other keeps the watch. I propose that I take the first watch for the sheer practicality of it. I was wounded and so I am full of adrenaline and won’t be able to sleep anyway. So… I do the first watch and wake you after 4 hours so you can take over, okay?”

“That’s nonsense and you know it, Doctor. You don’t even have adrenaline; you have some other stress hormone I already forgot the name of. Let me do the manipulating, you are just not good at it,” Clara laughed. “But you are probably right. And I’m far too tired to argue. Don’t forget to wake me.”

She took two blankets out of the backpack and tossed one at the Doctor who caught it. Then she wrapped herself in the blanket, using the first aid bag as a makeshift pillow.

“Oi, what do you think you are doing?” The Doctor asked. “You can’t just lie down on the cold ground. Do you want to risk a bladder infection or what?”

Clara looked at him confused.

“Since when do you worry about my bladder?”

“Here, I put that blanket on the ground, you lie on it and then you wrap yourself as tight as possible!”

“But then you don’t have a blanket and it’s freezing cold here!”

“Don’t be silly, I’m a Time Lord. We have a lower body temperature anyway and I have never heard of a Time Lord dying from hypothermia!”

“Probably the rate of Time Lords being beaten into regeneration by their companions because they were annoyed by their superior Time Lord stubbornness is higher, agreed,” Clara sighed.

He laid his blanket on the ground in the most protected corner of the room and stayed insistent until she finally laid down. He hung the gas mask and a machete on the wall next to her.

“Should they attack, you first put on the gas mask and then arm yourself with the machete, okay? But be careful you don’t cut yourself!”

He instructed.

“Doctor, do I have to remind you that I once wielded a sword in battle and if I’m not mistaken, I saved your royal Time Lord lower backside doing so?” She grinned.

He flinched. There was a reason he always suppressed that memory. Then he took the large chopper and sat down on the opposite side of the room where he could watch her sleep. He still didn’t feel it was safe enough. He got back up and looked around what he could find to make their stay a bit safer.

“You are acting more like we are only 20.35% safe, Doctor,” Clara remarked.

He grunted and looked inside the backpack.

“Why did you bring a Dalek gun?” He wondered.

“Oh, you know, it’s like with carrying an umbrella – if you carry one it is very unlikely that Daleks attack you,” she shrugged.

“Sounds reasonable,” he remarked, thinking that it probably wasn’t reasonable at all but that it sounded very much like his own thinking.

He placed the large chopper in front of Clara, so she could grab it immediately should need be. He placed the backpack near her head.

“There is pepper spray inside. If we both wear masks use it generously. I sense the Gargolfs have sensitive noses.”

He then made sure that Clara was wrapped properly in the blankets so there were no openings where the cold could creep in.

When he looked up, he caught a tender glance from her that made him blush.

“Don’t worry so much, Doctor,” she smiled.

“I just want to make sure you have a good night sleep, Clara,” he mumbled, avoiding her gaze.

“Maternal instincts, father hen?” She teased.

He blushed even more and turned his back. He placed the pest mask and the Dalek gun just within his reach. He looked around. It was not a perfect shelter, but for tonight it would do. And he had a whole night to think of a plan for escape.

For now, the only important thing was that his Clara got some good, undisturbed sleep and he would do everything to ensure this. Especially, he wouldn't wake her up to change shifts. Eight hours. She would get her eight hours of undisturbed human sleep.

He saw two brown eyes eying him from the blankets.

“Still awake?”

She nodded.

“Why?”

“You look worried, Doctor.”

He was. He was worried about the creatures. And he worried that he might fall asleep on his watch because if he counted right, he hadn’t had any sleep for the last 3 weeks. But most of all he was worried about Clara, because she became more and more reckless, more and more like him. And he knew she wouldn’t believe him if he said he wasn’t worried. She could read him like a book while he still sometimes failed in reading her right.

He settled as close to the truth he could get without starting a discussion about the duties of care or worrying her more than she was already worried.

“I worry for your health, Clara. You really need some hours of undisturbed sleep and I don’t know if I can provide it.”

“Doctor,” she smiled from her makeshift bed, “you made this room as safe as it can be for two adventurers stuck in a godforsaken castle that is situated in some godforsaken mountains on a godforsaken planet being persecuted by some flying wolves with a deadly breath. And I will fall asleep soon, because I know that you are watching over me and when I wake up you will have a plan ready how we will make it out of here alive.”

He lowered his gaze.

“Doctor, you won’t fall asleep on your watch. I know it. I know it because I know you worry too much about it. That is what will keep you awake. Your worry is what makes me feel protected. Now, will you stop worrying that I will fall asleep and just watch over me?”

Sometimes he wondered if she was slightly telepathic because she could decipher some of his thoughts. This incarnation, however, was not a good telepath because he had no idea what her smile and the twinkle in her eyes meant.

He got up and made sure one more time she was tucked in tightly. He pulled the blanket a little bit above her nose so her face would have the maximum amount of body warmth without suffocating her.

“Sleep well, Clara, sweet dreams and rest assured I will keep a good watch over you,” he murmured. He couldn’t help but stroking her head before he quickly turned his back and resumed his post at the opposite wall.

She had closed her eyes.

He shivered, pulled his legs a little closer to his body to preserve as much of his body warmth as possible and looked over to his small, fierce, beautiful, clever, reckless human companion.

She was probably right, he worried far too much to fall asleep, even for some microseconds. What were Earth microseconds in Gallifreyan tactical seconds? He started calculating it. Oh, this was good. It soothed his nerves. He did a few calculations more, into some other time standards, expanding them into the time systems of other galaxies and bending them back to the simplistic Earth time system.

Oh yes, this was good. He took a deep breath. His thoughts were clear once again. There was no way to change time itself. But there were always ways to transform time into another system, so a short timespan could become longer and more meaningful.

With a little bit of luck on his side the Gargolfs stayed away for the night. For eight hours. He set his new hope to eight hours.

Eight hours of undisturbed sleep for Clara.

Eight hours to just watch her calmly breathing, slightly snoring, looking happy, feeling safe under his protective gaze.

Eight hours he would count as an eternity of peace and rest for a Time Lord’s troubled mind.


End file.
